How did Pandaria rate compared to the other
expansions?

Now that a bit of time has passed im guessing a general consensus will have been formed.

I played WoW on and off from Burning Crusade to Cataclysm. The only time I have done real raiding was in Wrath, and I don't have the time anymore to do it seriously again. The only reason I would consider coming back to the game is the levelling up and story aspects of the game.

I left WoW shortly before Guild Wars 2 came out and have been playing that pretty consistantly since. I really enjoy it, but this isn't a topic to compare WoW and Guild Wars 2.

I'm basically thinking about buying the expansion and paying for a month or two just to level up to 90, do all the zones and all the initial heroic dungeons. Do you guys think it is a good idea?

How does the story in this expansion compare to the others? How do the Zones compare to the others?

Thanks---http://i.imgur.com/dD8yx.gif

#2spacecowboymikePosted 12/6/2012 5:55:12 AM

I think its the best expansion yet.

I started playing at the end of vanilla if that matters.

#3HakPosted 12/6/2012 6:20:30 AM

I still prefer TBC. The ridiculous number of dailies feel like the dungeon grinds from TBC, except in TBC the rep gains were faster. I could also log in, post in guild chat that I was looking for a 5-man, go do it, and then log out. Took a short time. Now to get the same rep gains, I need to go do dailies for a couple of hours for minimal gains each day, then there's 2 factions gated behind one of the first factions - you need Revered with one group before you can even consider building rep with the 2 other groups. It's a terrible system that basically kills off any ideas people had of playing multiple characters.

The actual landscapes of Pandaria are very pretty, and it's an impressive looking area (except Dread Wastes) that has obviously had a lot of work put into it. Questing is much improved over previous expacs, with lessons learned from WotLK (too much phasing is a bad thing) and Cataclysm (keep single quest hubs that introduce you to the next ones logically). Overall, pet battle content is a distraction - I've done it and found it okay for a short while, but not something that's deep enough for a meta-game. The farming stuff ties into rep grinds.

The expac is much better than Cata, a bit better than WotLK in that it released with better raiding options, and Scenarios mean DPS don't have ridiculous queues for dungeons to gear up. Slightly below TBC due to the stupid rep grinding, and TBC having the best raids WoW has had, even if TBC seemed to be an experiment (until 2.4 anyway) on how to make hybrids do something other than heal.---In the book, it says He created us to be just like Him. So if we're dumb, then God is dumb, and maybe a little bit ugly on the side. - Zappa

#4redundanciesPosted 12/6/2012 6:48:27 AM

The ridiculous number of dailies feel like the dungeon grinds from TBC, except in TBC the rep gains were faster. I could also log in, post in guild chat that I was looking for a 5-man, go do it, and then log out. Took a short time.

I always had the opposite experience - in BC, finding a group for a dungeon run was difficult and took a long time, and getting through those dungeons took even longer. Today I can log in, get my rep and log off in an hour, and you don't even need Revered for some of the gear.

there's 2 factions gated behind one of the first factions

I agree that this is a problem. Next time they do gear factions, you should be able to start all of them at once so folks have a choice. Some people will just rush to finish all of them at once, but oh well, those people are crazy as it is.

It's a terrible system that basically kills off any ideas people had of playing multiple characters.

People can certainly play multiple characters, they just have to put more effort into it. I don't see a problem with this philosophy.

Besides, I'm done (exalted, even with non-gear factions) with 5.0 reps on my first character already and we're only two months in. I could start working on my second character at this point without a need to play six hours a day.

#5IdTheDemonPosted 12/6/2012 8:11:53 AM(edited)

On par with TBC for best one yet:

Account wide mounts, pets and achievementsPet battles are fun and offer a lot of timeNew talent system is amazingScenarios are ok but they do allow players to see lore eventsFirst raid tier is great and is similar to tier 11

Pandaria continent is great. Nothing will ever top Northrend in terms of lore, size and atmosphere but Pandaria offers a lot of single player things.

Dailies are the only flaw of the game. But they are Blizzards way of telling people to do more than afk in town waiting for LFD.

---http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/frostmane/ceejay/simple

#6SirGizmoPosted 12/6/2012 8:08:31 AM

Worst expansion yet. Daily grinding, PvP is in complete shambles right now, raiding is even less imaginative than Cataclysm was.---"You miss 100% of the shots you dont take. -Wayne Gretzky" -Michael Scott.

#7angrywalrus13Posted 12/6/2012 8:17:21 AM

How does the story in this expansion compare to the others? How do the Zones compare to the others?

If this is what you're interested in, MoP's the best expansion in that department by far. The worldbuilding in Pandaria is...well beyond what WoW is used to. If you end up playing you'll have a pretty hard time not being sucked into Pandarian history (if you're the kind of person who's usually interested in that stuff, anyway). Pandaria feels much, much more alive than anywhere else in WoW, and the storytelling in each of the zones is much, much better than a lot of past questing, with a handful of exceptions, of course.

But yeah, if you're interested in leveling up/just seeing all the content, I'd say do it. Take it slow and absorb everything as you level and you'll have a better expansion experience than the past three, for sure.---Thomxlike tommicks

#8ToadstoolPeachPosted 12/6/2012 8:17:52 AM

Honestly I just do not like the dailies and how everything is gated. Making valor gear gated with rep that can only be gained through dailies really limits how you want to play while Blizzard promoted MoP will allow people to play how they want. Right now I see it like this:

BC > Wrath > MoP >>>>>>>> Cata

#9asdam_teabag(Topic Creator)Posted 12/6/2012 8:35:34 AM

angrywalrus13 posted...

How does the story in this expansion compare to the others? How do the Zones compare to the others?

If this is what you're interested in, MoP's the best expansion in that department by far. The worldbuilding in Pandaria is...well beyond what WoW is used to. If you end up playing you'll have a pretty hard time not being sucked into Pandarian history (if you're the kind of person who's usually interested in that stuff, anyway). Pandaria feels much, much more alive than anywhere else in WoW, and the storytelling in each of the zones is much, much better than a lot of past questing, with a handful of exceptions, of course.

But yeah, if you're interested in leveling up/just seeing all the content, I'd say do it. Take it slow and absorb everything as you level and you'll have a better expansion experience than the past three, for sure.

Thanks a lot, I think I will do just that.---http://i.imgur.com/dD8yx.gif

#10Sir WillPosted 12/6/2012 9:56:13 AM

The rep gating was stupid. If you're going to do that at least make the gating rep not take so long to get. GL dailies given so little rep, you have to do a ton of them each day.---River Song: Well, I was off to this gay gypsy bar mitzvah for the disabled when I thought 'Gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish, I think i'll kill the Fuhrer'